Within the framework of the Iranian cartoonists' requirements; The Iranian House of
Cartoon held an international cartoon competition on the subjects of Civilization 
and Free to achieve the following goals: 

1- To elevate pure art of cartoon and indirect training on all artistic and 
Technical fields for all those interested in this contemporary artistic phenomenon. 

2- Creating appropriate and favorable sphere to look for, attract and train new talents
in order  to retain and give uplift to various fields of cartoon quantity and quality. 

3- To globally communicate with cartoonists who deal with cartoon and satiric designs, in 
order to find suitable possibilities to solve creative and practical problems through
swapping  information.

4- Introduction of Iran's cartoon and creating an open space for competition between
 Iranian and foreign artists, which is an opportunity for artists from all over the world
 to exchange views and converse through common language of cartoon.

5- Great success and progress of cartoon in our country because of different appearances
of providing information such as publication of specialized magazines, setting up
international and across country exhibitions and participation of Iranian artists in 
external festival, necessitated continuous connection to expose this global 
art in the field of international culture. 

6- No art blooms in no time unless the essential ways are paved for its development
and flourishing. Holding this international competition, undoubtedly is a cause of
publicizing art among people. Because of specific capabilities of caricature, 
it brings about fast transmission of messages and experiences to any parts of the world. 

To appropriately  and suitably offer an opportunity to Iranian and foreign artists to pay
 attention to their valuable joint heritage, offering the subject Civilization, is one of the
 points which  competition-holders have paid special attention to. In addressed ordinary
 regulations relating to this exhibition, we invited all professional and not professional
 Iranian and foreign artists to take part in this exhibition. The numbers of exhibited 
works on the two subjects, Free and Civilization, were foreseen up to 5. With regard to 
 restriction of training facilities, exhibition-holders supposed that, after exhibition, 
all of the works remain in the House of Cartoon in order that the establishment 
of Iranian Cartoon Museum. All those interested whose works were published 
in the exhibition catalog were given each, a copy of this book. The deadline for
offering of works was July 3rd this year which was prolonged 10 days because of being 
welcomed by foreign and Iranian artists ( to July 31, 2000 ). Cooperating with eminent 
cartoonists, The House of Cartoon began providing information before the end of fall
last year, to hold international caricature competition on two subjects,
Civilization and Free. With regard to magnificent richness of internet potentiality, it 
seemed that constructing a site to introduce this exhibition and professional
Iranian cartoonists at the same time, two goals are being achieved for us.
Unfortunately there was no site to introduce Iranian cartoonists and
introduction of well-known faces, and their works in this country necessitated the
construction of the site  in Mars, 2000, which made it possible to provide
information. With regard to the experiences which are outcome 
of holding some international cartoon exhibitions, 
it seemed that direct contact with some well-known artists in Iran and in the world via 
sending competition brochure to their addresses in Iran and all over the world, 
completes our job of providing information. Now in order for all those interested
 to be more informed, the advertisements of this brochure were published in
 cartoon specialized publications. Iranian cartoonists' unexampled welcome 
with the presence of 430 artists with 1056 works showed popularity of cartoon 
among people. Now, presence of 197 foreign artists from 35 countries in the 
world with 570 works showed that the whole world has recognized Iran as base
 for this artistic field. At the end of the second deadline, the jury started to look 
at the works and decide on them during the meetings on July 31st and August 1st this
 year and then winners of this international competition were known. 

Members of the jury were: Mr. Amir Ali Baroutian, Mr.Hamid Bahrami,
 Mr. Afshin Sabouki, Mr. Bahram Azimi and Mr. Faez Alidousti ( professional caricaturist, 
animator and a teacher in the House of Cartoon ). We hope to be able to 
answer your questions about holding exhibition, awarding prizes and
 publishing catalog, within declared time.